Who is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev? Boston marathon bombing suspect

The name of the previously unknown Kyrgyzstan-born American resident Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of Chechen ethnicity has begun to dominate the media since he became a prime suspect in the investigation connected to recent events in Watertown and the Boston marathon bombings on Monday.

But who is he and what is his background?

– Of Chechen origin – a small federal state within Russia, on the border with Georgia – Dzhokhar moved to the United States with his family in 2001, aged six.

– Now aged 19, he is thought to have attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

– The school is notable for being one of the most racially diverse in the state, and among its alumni are Hollywood actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. The pair, who later went on to work together on major movies such as Good Will Hunting and Mall Rats, met as youngsters at the school.

– Dzhokhar may be currently enrolled as a second-year student at an unspecified New England medical school and reports suggest he may have won a scholarship from the state of Massachusetts in order to attend college.

Suspect 2: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Picture: FBI)

– Dzhokhar is thought to have shared a house with his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev on Norfolk Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts – a large suburban town abutting downtown Boston. Police are currently carrying out an investigation of the property and have sealed off the surrounding area.

– Tamerlan is believed to have died of a cardiac arrest on his way to hospital in Boston after an exchange of gunfire with police in the early hours of Friday morning. Dzhokhar is said to have been in the vehicle with Tamerlan at the time of the shootout and evaded capture.

– He declares his faith to be Islam and his birthday to be July 22 1993.

– Dzhokhar’s father Anzor Tsarnaev, who has described his son as an ‘intelligent boy’ and a ‘true angel’, has since returned to Russia and currently lives in the city of Makhachkala. In the interview Anzor did not elaborate on whether his son returned to his homeland on a regular basis – therefore it has been difficult for investigators to ascertain whether any political views he holds could have been influenced from connections back home.

– In a separate interview, Dzhokhar’s uncle Ruslan Tsarni said he was a ‘nice, quiet boy’, but admitted he has had ‘no relationship’ with him or his family ‘for a number of years’. He said he last visited his nephew in Boston in 2005 and believes he was in college ‘but not in Boston’.